Use thrifted items and items you have to create a rustic fall mantel with touches of burlap, gold, white and iron with this mantel idea.
It’s officially fall so I’m embracing it and sharing with you our fall 2013 mantel, so even though my flowers still look good, the weather has turned here (sigh…) and cozy, warm decorating is finally starting to appeal to me.
My whole decorating right now is leaning towards a cottage-farmhouse look with industrial accents (you can follow my Pinterest Board with all my inspiration pins here), so for our fall mantel I’ve gone with a neutral look that incorporates burlap, distressed wood and iron.
I started out with this ‘mantel in progress’ about a week ago (which you saw if you follow me on Instagram!) – you might recognize the star from our gallery wall that I’m redoing now after we painted the great room.
I think I’ve mentioned before that I just start pulling things from around the house that strike my fancy, set them up and then edit/add to as I walk by for about a week or so. I usually decide on the largest item – in this case I wanted to replace our vintage black window-mirror with this burlap cocoa bean sack I got for $2 a few months ago. After deciding I didn’t want to replace the star on the gallery wall I set it on the mantel and found I liked the juxtaposition of the shiny mirror with the rough burlap.
Once I had those two elements, I just found a few things to repeat them – the iron cake stand & burlap candle wraps – and then layered in some distressed white wood pieces, some of my white pumpkins, some candles and feathers.
I pulled out some thrift store brass because it seems to echo the burlap’s golden color nicely and then I tied the two together with a super simple craft – gold burlap candle wraps.
I’m sure I’ll probably add to (or take away) from this mantel as the season progresses (it’s what happened with our 2012 fall mantel, too), because that’s part of the fun of decorating for fall. Our leaves haven’t really changed yet here, so when we start getting those fabulous fall colors, I’ll probably want to add them to our mantel and shelves.
Have you started decorating for fall?
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Syrie M. says
I am LOVING the burlap! I keep walking through our home, trying to figure out “another way” that I can use it. We have some large wood bookshelves that my mother picked up at the Oregon surplus warehouse in Salem for about $20 each that I had “washed” in a java paint a few years ago, but they weren’t really showing off our collections. I then decided to back the shelves with burlap, by spraying one side of the burlap with Loctite spray adhesive & pressed it on. I like this product, ’cause if you mess up your placement of fabric, a hot iron applied to to the non-sprayed side can loosen it so that you can move it to were it needs to be, or even smooth out any “bubbles” & make ’em stick! I also did a “ribbon” of burlap down the middle of our front door, with large letters (JOY) down the middle that I’d cut out of foam board & painted shiny red for Christmas. It looks great! Keep posting burlap ideas!
Jami says
What a great idea to back your shelves in burlap, Syrie!! Love your ideas 🙂
April says
It looks beautiful! Perfect little touches that all tie in together.
Sarah says
It’s so pretty! I really love your little black lanterns too! Every time I see one of your pretty mantels I get inspired. 🙂
Debra @ Frugal Little Bungalow says
It looks lovely ! Have not started here yet aside from cornstalks out front and dried hydrangea inside.